Saturday, June 11, 2016

A piece of the Panel Pie

This week I decided to try to better visualize the player's progress towards clearing each goal. I remember there was a player at Indie City Games who didn't recognize that the goal in one level required 8 hits to clear, so I wanted to find a way to call this out more obviously to the player. I decided the perfect way to do this is to re-use the panel I just implemented for linked goals. Here's how it looks:

In the picture above, the player is about to hit a goal that requires 8 hits to clear. Currently, there are two hits, and the panel is two eighths full.

And here the player has passed through the goal for their third hit. The text shows 3/8, and three eighths of the panel have been filled.

And so on and so on.

Next week, I want to re-examine my level pacing. Specifically, I want to see if I can be introducing new concepts at a more structured pace. I'm thinking a new concept every three levels, with a break after every six levels for a more complex, challenging level.

I should also finally decide what happens when you complete a level and then die. Currently, the fail panel overlaps the win panel, so you technically die.

As always, the charge-up sound is by Javier Zumer. I'm using it and modifying it under this license.